It is no secret that there is no love lost between myself the the national team at Nikon Philippines. When Columbia ran it; things were great. Think Dharma took over and it has been nothing but hell on earth for Nikon users. It has fundamental problems in communication and in support. No two ways about it.

If you can’t serve the community, you should not be the supplier. The truth of the matter is most camera shops only sell grey market models because working with Think Dharma would run them completely out of business. To think that Herny’s Camera, the largest camera shop in the Philippines with a half a dozen locations only deals in the grey market is concerning. It is concerning for everyone.

I do not know if Nikon Philippines will ever get their act together and if they do not, I see no logical reason anyone would buy locally when prices in the United States are at least a quarter lower. If I have to go grey, I will go as cheap as I can. Best sale or promotional will win my business.

Nikon Philippines has a communication problem

Below is a facebook message from me to Nikon Philippines’ facebook page. Notice the date? Nikon D7200, the system in question was officially released March 19, 2015. What does it matter? They very likely had the camera in the country to have to ready to sell on the release date but the marketing team, the very one that should know did not.

If Nikon really did not know they was releasing the new body in a few weeks, it is a communication problem between them and Nikon Corporation in Japan. If they did know but the marketing team did not, it is a communication from inside of the Nikon Philippines. No matter how you look at it, it is concerning for good reasons.

If they can’t fix this, I would hope Nikon Corporation would change their warranty agreement so we could get our models serviced in Hong Kong, Singapore or Japan. To be honest, I trust the team in Hong Kong over the Filipino team anyways.

Buying Nikon USA makes sense for Filipinos

The market in the United States is very tight and the quality control is very high. Only the best quality can be sold and in America, your brand name actually means something.

Buying gear in the United States (and shipping it to the Philippines via Johnny Air) just makes sense for now. We have nothing to gain from buying it locally in Manila. Filipino pride only goes so far when it becomes dollars and cents. No need for pogi points!